Station Crew Practices Cabin Pressure Leak Procedures

The three-member Expedition 29 crew conducted a training exercise Friday in the unlikely event the International Space Station experienced a cabin pressure leak. The crew would stop all activity, place systems in a safe posture, locate and isolate the point of depressurization and if necessary enter a docked Soyuz spacecraft and evacuate the station. The simulated emergency takes place every 2.5 months ensuring the crew is familiar with emergency equipment and procedures.

Meanwhile, ongoing international research and systems maintenance continue to dominate the crew’s daily schedule.

Commander Mike Fossum spent some time in the Tranquility module replacing the fluids control and pump assembly in the Water Recovery System. He also checked out scanners ensuring they operate properly and connect to an inventory management system database.

Sergei Volkov, a flight engineer responsible for the station’s Russian segment, photographed and cleaned fans in the Rassvet mini-research module. Volkov also repressurized the station’s oxygen using a docked Progress cargo vehicle’s supply.

Japanese astronaut and Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa inspected the COLBERT treadmill’s pulley teeth, motor and lateral belts and greased the forward and rear axles. The yearly inspection took up the majority of Furukawa’s day as he also checked speed performance and signs of wear and tear.

Urban areas targeted for Friday’s Crew Earth Observations (CEO) opportunities include Chisinau, Moldova; Tehran, Iran; and the land-locked microstate of San Marino. Tropical Storm Ophelia in the Atlantic Ocean and Hurricane Hilary in the Pacific Ocean were CEO targets. The Chiricahua Mountains in the Sonoran Desert and the active Ubinas Volcano in Peru also were areas of interest.

Fossum participated in a question and answer session with students visiting the Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado at Boulder Tuesday. NASA’s “Destination: Station,” a free, multimedia exhibit, is on display at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Sept. 16-Oct. 28. Along with the International Space Station exhibit, NASA personnel will be in Denver Sept. 20-27 to participate in public outreach events throughout the city.

NASA and its international partners agreed to a tentative launch schedule with crew flights to the station resuming on Nov. 14. According to the current plan, the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, carrying NASA’s Dan Burbank and Russia’s Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, will launch Nov. 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the station Nov. 16.